is this doctor wrong? If you cut off blood supply to the colon wouldnt it die?

S

slidecage

CAGiversary!
Feedback
106 (100%)
I give you the long story...

so i went over to my grandfathers house last friday to help me change my brakes on my car.. well after doing the job he says he dont feel well and that he has not had a movement for 4 or 5 days so we told him to get his ass into the doctors. He went in that day and had some sort of test done and said he had a blockage and get to the hospital. Saturday they took him in and did the camera up the butt thing and found out it was NOT a blockage but it was a tumor and he needed surgery on SUNDAY... So they took him down Sunday and it was to take place like 9am to 11am and then rest for a hour before coming back to his room. Well 1 came and went and then 2 came and went and we asked what was going on and they said he was still under the knife, he finally got done around 330pm. So monday came and all of a sudden his blood pressure fell to almost nothing meaning that he was still bleeding, so monday night he had to undergo another surgery and hes been under MAJOR Meds since then (hes been sleeping since mon night)

Sunday took out the tumor
monday night they had to remove his spleen and either remove or disconnect his colon

meaning that now he has to live with the bag (what we have no idea how is going to react to this) since hes been out since monday night . They said they would give him 48 hours under meds to keep him knocked out and would start to bring him out of it last night (weds) but the doctor is now saying maybe tonight or this weekend ..

his heart beat and blood pressure was
Monday 104 (very high) blood was very low due to bleeding)
tuesday 90s blood was 150/75
weds mid 80s blood was like 125/70 i think

i have no idea what the second number is on the machines its like 13 to 17 I know all of the alarms go off if it hits 19 cause choking and it jumped to 22 to 26 and the nurse came in and sucked out his mouth.

we all though he would be coming home next week but now how the doctors talk it could be up to a month or longer... hes really going to love to see this bill. (my aunt fell last month and he went nuts on that bill LOL)

SORRY FOR THE LONG STORY but now i will try to get back on point ...

tuesday the doctor comes in and tells about the bag and we are like we dont know how he is going to handle this and the doctor goes... well if he pulls though and everything heals maybe in a few months i can rehook the colon up.. (what was sort of weird cause we thought they removed it )

wouldn't the colon die if it did not have bloodlflow though it for weeks or months...

maybe they can but i though tissue would die if it did not have blood flowing though it .


Hopefully tonight or this weekend he will come out of it and wake up and be his old self
 
I just want to say sorry to hear about your grandfather and hope he gets better and has the money to pay for the bills and prayer can help too if you believe
 
Last edited:
Same as Starmask - sorry to hear about your grandfather.

Additionally, I am not medically trained in any way, though I do have an abnormal number of friends in the Medical profession. I completely agree with your logic, and all I can say is that somehow they must be able to detach it from the digestive tract without cutting its blood supply. I Googled "reattach colon after surgery" and got this article. If you read to the end they discuss the exact scenario you layed out and it sounds (surprisingly)...is "normal" the right word?

http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/colorecalcancer/a/ccancersurg.htm
 
Sorry to hear about your grandfather, man. I hope he has the most speedy and painless recovery possible.

Just because it's detached from the digestive system doesn't mean that it's detached from the body. There might not be arteries, but there are veins and capillaries to maintain blood flow or else it wouldn't heal at all.
 
I hope they can redo it, parents were up there today and they had to watch a video about the bag he is going to need to wear.. it will have to be changed every 2 hours and sort of worried they might have to put him a nursing home... Talked to doctor and now they are saying they may keep him asleep till Saturday or Sunday (what does not sound good to me) he will be out since monday night
 
You don't have to put him in a nursing home, that's what the Family Medical Leave Act is for. Your parents will have to do the math to see if that's a good financial decision or not.
 
I've known 2 people that have had to have a temporary illeostomy/colostomy. I couldnt tell you about the details of it, but I know your colon can definitely be reconnected once the colon has healed.
 
It sounds like his sigmoid colon wasn't affected by the surgery, which is the part you shit out of. Along with the tumor, sometimes there is a portion of the large intestine that they remove. They would then plug that end into a colostomy bag. Because no arteries or veins were cut, the remaining portion of the colon (I'm guessing it's his sigmoid due to the doctor's prognosis of him being reconnected) will continue to have blood flow and that = no necrosis
 
First off I wish your grandfather well and a speedy recovery.

The doctor likely created what's called a stoma in his colon (hence the term colostomy). Without going into all the gory details, it basically is an opening they created to bypass the rectum and part of the colon which is what the bag is for. I don't think it occurs in a majority of colon surgeries, but a having to use a colostomy bag is fairly common.

As others have mentioned this doesn't mean it cuts off bloodflow. A colostomy is usually reversible but sometimes depending on circumstances it has to be permanent, luckily it sounds like as long as his recovery continues it will be something they can reverse down the line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top